Being Social on WordPress: Turning on Likes and Reblogs
For better or worse, there’s long-been a movement towards using the quick and easy “Like” or heart button to acknowledge that you’ve seen something someone else has posted. On one hand, it’s nice to at least let someone know you stopped by to read, when you just didn’t have anything else to add to it other than “I agree!” On the other hand, even I fall into the trap of simply Liking something during my busy day.
Whether this is good or bad is a debate for another time. But as far as trends go on the Net, I figured I may as well drop a Like button on my blogs just to offer the option. The way I see it, if someone wasn’t going to comment on something, they won’t – whether or not the Like button is there. At least the Like lets you know they were there, allows you to check out their blog if they have one, and maybe pursue a further connection.
Who knows. That person might just be shy!
While visiting blogs during Blaugust, I notice most WordPress blogs do have the Like button… but a few don’t. So I just wanted to take a moment to talk about how to add Likes and Reblogs to your WordPress blog – both WordPress.com and self-hosted.
Likes and Reblogs at WordPress.com
Log in and:
- Click My Sites in the top left corner.
- Click Tools > Marketing.
- Navigate to the Sharing Button tab.
- Under the Reblog & Like section, select which features you want to turn on.
- Choose how you want those buttons to appear, then click Save Changes.
I do not have Reblog turned on. This allows anyone on WordPress.com to one-click repost your content. So if that’s not something you want to see, I warn you to take care with this feature.
Some communities, such as Tumblr, thrive on a reblogging feature. In fact, you WANT your stuff reblogged to share it. It’s a totally different environment.
But as far as I’ve ever seen, very few folks who use WordPress want their content straight up copied into another person’s blog. I think it’s just a difference in how blogging is approached, and the type of content shared on the different platforms.
Likes for a Self-Hosted WordPress
To have Likes on a self-hosted WordPress, you must have the Jetpack plugin installed. There’s a lot fewer settings for self-hosted, and no option to Reblog at all, since you aren’t technically hooked into the WordPress.com ecosystem.
To turn Likes on, log in and:
- Go to the admin dashboard.
- Navigate to Jetpack > Settings.
- Click the Sharing tab.
- At the bottom of the page, toggle the Like buttons feature on.
And that’s it! Your blog can now swim about in a sea of peer affirmation. Like and enjoy! 😉